Sometimes game makers want to show how epic a battle is by having the arena you're fighting in slowly falling apart as enemies (or you) launch attacks or get tossed around. Sometimes they want to [[WreakingHavok show off their awesome physics engine]], and sometimes... sometimes they just think being able to blow everything up is [[RuleOfcool really, really cool]].

Enter the [[TitleDrop Everything-Is-Smashable Area]], a location where environmental and structural objects can be shot, smashed, or blown apart just as easily as the {{mooks}} guarding them. Usually, this is done for the purposes of collecting points or items, but occasionally destroying objects or walls ''en masse'' is necessary to progress or, in more cathartic instances, the whole point of the game.

Many games that advertise themselves as featuring destructible scenery will have a few of these and make sure they're prominently featured in the trailer. The rest of the game? [[NeverTrustATrailer Not so much.]]

See also: RewardingVandalism, EverythingBreaks. A video-game version of KungShui.
----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Action Game]]
* ''VideoGame/BlastCorps'' is made of this, except for the trees.
* Most of ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'' is like this, until the DisappointingLastLevel. The Kashyyyk prologue is especially notable, though, crammed full of trees you can cut down with your lightsaber and throw around with the force, and grass that ripples as you blow things over it. Also [[VideogameCrueltyPotential Wookiee-tossing]].
* Every level in the 2009 ''VideoGame/{{Ghostbusters|TheVideoGame}}'' video game. But especially the hotel level, which is a ContinuityNod to the movie, where they destroyed goddamn '''everything''' in a hotel.
* More or less the entire point of ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders Get Even'': Every destroyed building and enemy increases your timer by varying amounts, which also doubles as your lifebar. As might be expected, abducting cows and visiting Stonehenges (yes, it's a plural, for whatever reason there's one in pretty much single level) increase it the most.
* In ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'' in most levels you can punch, kick or throw enemies into walls to smash them. You don't get anything for it, it's just fun to do.
** Plus in the [[MultiMookMelee courtyard battle with the Smiths]] you have to complete destroy all the nearby buildings to end the fight.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Action Adventure Game]]
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'':
** The storehouse just outside of Hyrule Castle Town in child Link's time. An NPC in the room hangs a lampshade on it by mentioning how Link can "let off some steam" by destroying the jars.
** You can maneuver the final boss into smashing the various bits of rubble around his arena, releasing item pickups for you. Handy.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Overlord}}'' series of games allows you and your ravenous horde of gremlins to smash just about any and every inanimate object aside from trees, bushes and rocks. In fact, doing so is often necessary to find treasure. Plus commanding a ravenous horde of gremlins to tear apart a tranquil village including burning down the houses is immensely entertaining.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Action RPG]]
* Creator/FromSoftware: All of their {{Soulslike RPG}}s feature this in some form. If you enter a boss arena filled with pews or columns, chances are they'll all be destroyed by the end of the fight, either by you or the boss.
* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. There's a minigame wherein you have a room full of boxes to smash, but you have to be strategic about it in order to get any sort of reward.
* The boss fight against the King of Toys in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' takes place in a "city" of buildings made from blocks. The tallest will tip over just from Sora running up the sides while the boss's tendency to stay low to the ground as it moves causes blocks to fly everywhere. The boss's TornadoMove even sends all the blocks flying off the edges of the battlefield, after which they reset to an intact state so they can be flung about all over again.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Arcade Game]]
* This was the entire point of classic arcade game ''VideoGame/{{Rampage}}''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fighting]]
* There's a game-mode in ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}} Unleashed'' where you get points for...well...destroying a major city. Certain buildings are worth more points than others and famous landmarks (e.g., the Tokyo Tower) are worth the most points.
* Similar to the above, ''VideoGame/WarOfTheMonsters'' features several city levels that have buildings you can break apart and eventually destroy completely, replete with debris you can use as weapons.
* ''VideoGame/DeadOrAlive5'' has a few stages that serve as this, most noteworthy being a house full of destructible pottery, furniture, walls and even ''floors''.
* In ''VideoGame/StickFight'', most stages have at least one element that can be destroyed with your guns, and in ice stages, the entire stage can be shot to pieces.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:First-Person Shooter]]
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' has a few rooms filled with nothing but smashable crates.
* ''Half Life 2: [[EpisodicGame Episode 1]]'' features a duel between Gordon Freeman and a Combine gunship in a large, rickety wooden building which is slowly reduced to rubble by surface-to-air missiles and heavy machine-gun fire. The fight gets progressively more difficult as available cover is destroyed. Or easier, depending on your playing style. After all, if a part of the roof covers you from the gunship's fire, it covers the gunship from your fire too.
* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'''s ''Swamp Fever'' had a level where the survivors must make their way across a rickety, highly destructible bridge. The structure is slowly chipped away at by gunfire and zombie attacks, and [[InfernalRetaliation god help you]] if you throw a Molotov. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential Lots of fun]] on Versus on the zombie team.
* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' supplies a large amount of environmental objects per map that serve no purpose other than to look pretty and get destroyed by being shot at. On almost every attack/defense map, the first attack-side spawn rooms contain plenty of destructibles since players have to wait for the 60-second setup time and won't really have much to do anyway. Special examples include Hanamura (an arcade with plenty of machines to smash up) and Junkertown (which includes [[CoolBike Roadhog's bike]], which you can blast apart to pieces like a ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' bonus level).
* ''VideoGame/RedFaction'' and ''Red Faction 2'' live on this trope, such that it shocks you when you finally come across a surface that you can't blast your way through.
* Later on in the game, in ''[[VideoGame/SeriousSam Serious Sam III BFE]]'', you go through some Egyptian ruins where all the pillars, archways and most of the walls are destructable. Very fun with [[StuffBlowingUp crates full of infinite rocket launcher ammo and C4.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Hack and Slash]]
* The ''VideoGame/BaldursGateDarkAlliance'' games are pretty heavy offenders.
* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'' has the room where you fight Matt Helms. In it, almost literally the only things you can't break are the floors and the walls. There is, however, ''one'' wall in the corner that's indestructible, creating a pocket. Helms is smart enough to herd you into this pocket, so be careful.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'': Slice and dice your way to victory with an AbsurdlySharpBlade.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:MMORPG]]
* The "Mayhem Missions" in ''[[VideoGame/CityOfHeroes City of Villains]]''.
* The Barrel Full of Barrels in ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Platform Game]]
* ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim 2'' has the level "Lorenzen's Soil", where Jim has to shoot a path through dirt.
* One of the castle levels in ''VideoGame/WarioLand II'' consists of Wario smashing through a bunch of walls.
* The bamboo forest in the second part of the fight against General Tsao in ''VideoGame/Sly3HonorAmongThieves''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Third-Person Shooter]]
* ''VideoGame/RedFactionGuerrilla'' ups the ante even further than its FPS predecessors by setting the game on an Everything Is Smashable ''Planet.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Wide Open Sandbox]]
* The main way of getting studs in almost every ''VideoGame/LEGOAdaptationGame'' is to attack stuff made of LEGO bricks. It's also the best way of handling puzzles. When in doubt, attack the scenery! The bonus levels are made entirely of LEGO and thus almost entirely destructible.
* The Japanese game ''Hakaioh - King of Crusher'' is based on this trope. Your character usually has violent rampages in which he smashes everything in the room, brought on by some kind of a weird talking flying demonic beetle with bat wings. In later levels the main character is turned into a werewolf of some kind, a dinosaur, a Godzilla expy and finally a dragon, just so you can destroy bigger stuff.
* ''VideoGame/TheIncredibleHulkUltimateDestruction'' lives up to the name: if you can see it, you can destroy it. If you can't destroy it, you can pick it up and use it to destroy other things.
[[/folder]]
----